Giant Meteorite Impacts on Early Earth Create the Continents
A recent research has provided strong evidence that the Earth's continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts. On August 10, 2022, a team of scientists led by Dr Tim Johnson from Curtin University's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences published its study in the...
India’s Stand on One-China Policy and Indo-Taiwan Relationship
After the visit of US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan on August 2, 2022, to extend the support of the US to Taiwan, tensions have flared up between Taiwan and China. China accused the US of backtracking on the One-China Policy. On Pelosi’s visit to Taipei,...
Ancient Rock-cut Temple and Civilisation Discovered in Saudi Arabia
An excavation and survey by the Saudi Heritage Commission, in the desert landscapes of Al-Faw (Al-Rub’ Al-Khali), at the side of Mount Tuwaiq South-West of Riyadh, was carried out recently. During the excavation, the Commission discovered the remains of an ancient...
GST Rate Changes and its Impact
Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in 2014 and came into effect in 2017. It subsumed various central indirect taxes including central excise duty, countervailing duty, service tax, state VAT, octroi, luxury tax, etc. GST Council conducted its 47th meeting in...
Scorching Heatwave Across Europe
The temperatures across Europe have been soaring in July 2022. This has led to extreme danger alerts for wildfires in many European countries. Britain, France, Poland, Eastern Europe, Spain, Italy, and Germany have been reeling under severe heatwave as temperature in...
Vice President of India: Election, Eligibility, Role, Powers, and Functions
The office of the Vice President of India is the second highest constitutional office in India. It is next to the office of the President of India, who is the commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces. The Vice President of India is the ex-officio chairperson of...
Why Wheat Allocation Slashed for 10 States
—By Charu Latha The Department of Food and Public Distribution allocates food grains to states and union territories under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and other schemes. To make food security a legal right, the government enacted National Food...
Indian Start-up to Produce Cost-effective Melanin
An Indian start-up company, Avisa Myko, has demonstrated that it could produce melanin at a much lower cost with its indigenous technology. The actual cost of a gram of melanin is around 400 USD. However, Avisa Myko could produce it at a cost of 10 cents per gram...
India’s Largest Floating Solar Power Plant Commissioned
India’s largest floating solar power project was commissioned on July 1, 2022, by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at Ramagundam in Telangana’s Peddpalli district. Floating Solar Panels Floating solar panels are photovoltaic (PV) modules that float on top...
Single-Use Plastic Banned
The Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in August 2021, issued a gazette notification announcing the ban on ‘single-use plastic’. It came into effect from July 1, 2022. The government has now defined a list of items that would be banned. The Ministry...
Is There A Crisis in Rice Ahead?
—By Charu Latha Rice and wheat are the staple food crops in India. For about half of the world’s population, rice is the staple food. The food prices have been rising and reached their highest ever level in March 2022. The Russia-Ukraine war has pushed the cost of...
Implications of the Recent Fall of Rupee
—By Charu Latha The Indian rupee hit an all-time low against the US dollar on July 19, 2022 when it crossed Rs 80. Exactly ten years ago one US dollar was equivalent to Rs 57 while in 2020, it was equivalent to around Rs 70. Within two years, the exchange rate has...
Black Swan Event
—By Charu Latha Black swan event is commonly used for the events that are difficult or quite impossible to predict. The black swan event has three attributes. First, these events are quite a rare occurrence and are beyond the regular predictions. Second, they have a...
Circular Economy
—By Charu Latha The world has been witnessing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption caused by our ‘take-make-dispose’ approach. In 2019, over 92 billion tonnes of materials were extracted and processed, contributing to about half of global carbon...
Gig Economy
—By Charu Latha According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a gig economy is a labour market characterised by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work or payment-by-task basis as opposed to permanent jobs. In a gig economy, organisations and business...
Twelfth Ministerial Conference of the WTO
—By Charu Latha The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations. It was established in 1995 as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations, (1986–94), and consists of 164 member-countries. These 164...
Free Trade Agreements
—By Charu Latha According to Investopedia, a free trade agreement (FTA) is a pact between two or more countries to reduce barriers to imports and exports between them. Under a free trade policy, goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders...
India’s Recent Robust Performance in Merchandise Exports
—By Charu Latha The world economy had the worst contraction due to COVID-19. India was no exception and the economy in 2020–21 was severely impacted due to the pandemic. The economy was expected to take a V-shaped recovery path (a quick sharp improvement in an economy...
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, 2022
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the scientific group put together by the United Nations to assess all global science related to climate change, published the third instalment of its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), prepared by Working Group (WG)...
Ban on Wheat Exports
—by Charu Latha Wheat is one of the most important cereal crop in India. The total area under the crop at present (2021) is 31.6 million hectares. The productivity of wheat during 2004–05 was 2602 kilograms (kg) per hectare, while during 2011–12 it was 3140 kg per...